Liberace Afternoon: The Life and Times of Irene Zón

I remember watching the Liberace show with my grandmother and great grandmother when I was a little kid. I loved his flamboyance while my grandmother always remarked on his piano playing. In a sort of exchange, I would translate for them in real-time (neither understood much English). My grandmother was something of a piano prodigy herself, and would make it a point to have me watch Liberace's hands and feet as he played. Such were my first music lessons; indirect, via the critical ears of a woman who hated the Cuban revolution if for no other reason than she could no longer play the piano whenever she wanted. It would be a few years before my mom was able to afford a piano for my grandmother. All bets were off the moment the used, upright piano was delivered and tuned. Listen to this episode and you'll know why.

Irene Zón was born in Vigo, Spain and became a piano teacher in Cuba's Centro Gallego de la Habana before finding work as a seamstress in the United States. She was a force of nature, Chancleta Master who did not suffer fools (like my dad, her son-in-law) gladly or otherwise. The tension between her and my father was as palpable as her own marital history was as influential; in my childhood home as in her heart as in her impassioned piano playing. This is some of her story.